Hayden Panettiere might only be 5-ft-2, but makes a big entrance. We would know: We had the opportunity to interview the star down in Tennessee where her hit show Nashville is filmed (she calls the city her second home). And the Neutrogena spokesmodel dished on everything from her bridal beauty vision to the purple hair trend and her character Juliette Barnes’s impressive closet.

“I would like some really long, loose boho beach waves and just a nice golden tan,” Panettiere tells PEOPLE. [Editor’s note: It’s nearly impossible to look away from the blinding 6-carat sparkler on her hand, which she designed herself, when talking to her.] “I want to be classy and elegant and sophisticated, but I also don’t want to forget my age. I want to be comfortable. I want it to be just sexy enough, but youthful at the same time. I don’t want to look so done up.”

Since she’s planning a trip down the aisle (no date to report yet!) — and is tied to her Nashville character’s blonde hair, Panettiere won’t be doing anything drastic to her mane. But she reveals if she had the freedom to switch up her strands, she’d jump on the pastel hair hue bandwagon.

“I would probably do a combo of the light blue, lavender and maybe a really light pink,” she shares. “I mean if I did my whole head, I would probably go for lavender. My friend on set did her hair with this very, very light pink and it kind of has a multicolor look on the ends. It’s really light and really pretty. We would have to see what looks best.”

Courtesy Neutrogena

For now, she’s busy keeping her hair tresses healthy with Neutrogena’s Triple Repair Hair Care system. “Part of the reason I chopped it off because it kept getting so fried. I didn’t think I was going to be able to nurse it back to health. Here [Nashville] the weather is tough, you’re dealing with a lot of humidity, and I’ve got curly hair so it’s rising like dough at all times. When we do the big performance scenes and I’m sweating or outside, my hair turns really curly and gets really frizzy, which means re-blow drying it and using the flatiron, which is terrible for your hair. It just starts breaking it off. The products have given me a stronger base to work with and my hair is actually starting to curl back the way it naturally was before all the frying.”

And for all those Nashville fans out there who are dying to know if Panettiere raids Juliette’s wardrobe, let’s just say she really wants to.

“She’s got great clothes. I ask the wardrobe department sometimes, ‘Do you think they would let me have these?’,” she tells PEOPLE. “Her performance on-stage clothes are one thing, but her off-stage clothes are also really fun and wearable. There was this one Balmain dress, which I really wanted to use, but it [didn’t work for] the scene. It was amazing.”

She also addressed the question on everyone’s mind: Deacon or Luke for Rayna?

“That’s so hard because Luke is so obviously a great guy for her life right now, but Deacon’s the one that she will always love because he’s the love of her life,” she explains. “Hopefully, we have many years to sort that out. I don’t write the script, girl!”

What do you think of Panettiere’s wedding day hair plan? Are you a fan of her Nashville wardrobe? Share your thoughts below.–Brittany Talarico

She’s such a nice and gorgeous girl and an amazing actress. I’m just lucky she doesn’t get to dye her hair in pastel colours. That really looks awful on most women.

lg
on April 16th, 2014

She’s such a nice and gorgeous girl and an amazing actress. I’m just lucky she doesn’t get to dye her hair in pastel colours. That really looks awkward on most women. She would most likely regret it like at the time she dyed it dark red in 2010. Her natural blond hair looks great and she shouldn’t change it. Besides colour would harm her hair even more.

spanky
on April 17th, 2014

she is fine

CC
on April 17th, 2014

@lg how does that make you lucky?

lg
on April 18th, 2014

@CC, because I don’t want her to have again problems with her hair. And I hate hair dyed in those colours. But in the end it’s her decision, not mine if she does it or not.